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Google Maps is on a roll. After completing its trek across the Grand Canyon last week, the world’s best map service added 38 additional ski resorts to its mapped areas. Google kicked off this off in November when they mapped about 90 resorts around the world. The newly added maps are mostly located in the United States, and can be viewed online as well as in its apps for Android and iPhone. If you love the slopes like I do, you know that adding ski resorts like Squaw Valley, Big Sky and Whistler Blackcomb is a big deal. If you haven’t used Google Maps to check out resorts before, it’s really simple to navigate. Ski runs are marked in blue, green and black lines show how tough the terrain is, and lifts are marked as red dotted lines. As always, Google is never satisfied, and promised that “more ski resort maps [are] on the way.” Now, if you’ll excuse me, there’s a mountain… or 38… calling my name.

The American International Toy Fair starts this Sunday. Normally, tech writers wouldn’t’ be too excited about a toy fair, except for their perpetual childlike personalities and secret love of all things juvenile. This year, however, is different. As the iPad gains popularity, companies are finding ways to incorporate it into their products. From cars that interact with the iPad to Tankbots that are controlled by the tablet, toys are becoming the next big thing for the iPad.

At this year’s Toy Fair, NERF will be making a slam dunk with their new N-SPORTS CYBERHOOP. Now, not only can you play office B-Ball during March Madness, you can actually play against your buds and hear real-time commentary on your shots.

Using a specially made N-SPORT hoop in connection with the free CYBERHOOP app, players can select from five different basketball challenges to start shooting hoops. The CYBERHOOP transmits players’ scores to the iPad and triggers commentary, follows the “game” stats, and even captures video of the exciting sports action.

You’ll be able to share your shots using the highlight reel and play virtually with friends online through the app’s multiplayer mode.

The specially designed N-SPORTS basketball is expected to launch this fall for $19.99 and the companion CYBERHOOP app will be available as a free download in the App Store.

IK Multimedia, the leading iOS accessory maker for music-related products recently updated their popular AmpliTube guitar and bass effects app to include “Loop Drummer,” a personal drummer inside your app.

Through an in-app unlock, users can access Loop Drummer, which is a loop-based customizable drum track that you can sync to your AmpliTube recorder. You can either play along with a single loop, or put together a full drum track, complete with intro, basic beats, fills, and an ending.

There are more that 500 different drum loop sounds across a variety of music genres, including Rock, Blues, Country, Metal, Funk, and more. They are available in “Style Packs,” which package 64 different loops in each genre, organized into eight songs with eight loops in each song.

Loop Drummer is more than a click track for recording. It features a remixer, which creates a drum track based on an algorithm that sequences the loop. Drum tracks can also be customized with a cymbal button, which adds a crash to the downbeat, and a tempo adjuster to let you speed up or slow down the song. There are built in mixer controls and the ability to adjust the drum level, separate from the recorder’s volume.

Loop Drummer is available as an in-app purchase inside AmpliTube. If you don’t already have the app, you can purchase it for $19.99 in the App Store. If you already have AmpliTube, download the free update to gain access to the new feature. You’ll get eight sample loops for free with the download. Each pack of 64 loops cost $3.99 each, or you can download the whole set for $14.99.

“Can an iPad really replace a ‘proper’ computer? Can a ten-inch, 128GB tablet do the work of an eleven-inch 128GB MacBook Air? The answer is yes. Kinda,” Charlie Sorrel writes for Cult of Mac. “If your work involves having two windows sitting permanently open side-by-side, then the iPad might not be for you (although you might consider whether you need both windows open together).”

“For most other regular workaday work type work, though. the iPad is ideal,” Sorrel writes. “And here’s our guide to replacing your Mac with an iPad. Specifically a Retina iPad, but you might even manage with a mini.”

Hardware– Replacing A Physical Keyboard– Buying A Stand– Handy To Have Hardware

Sorrel writes, “By definition, the iPad does some things better than the desktop, and some things worse. You’ll have to assess the tradeoffs to see whether an iPad will work for you, but be sure to do it with an open mind. Many people are wedded to their Macs just because they’re used to them, not because they actually need all that they offer.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: One thing we’d add, regarding physical keyboards for on-the-go use, is a choice we didn’t see in Sorrel’s full article, but it’s one we use (when we don’t just use the iOS on-screen keyboard) and it works well for us: Logitech’s Ultrathin Keyboard Cover for iPad (US$99.99)

“Here’s a fuller idea of Legg Mason manager Bill Miller’s view on Apple (AAPL) – the one that ever so briefly got traders buying the stock again this morning,” Brendan Conway reports for Barron’s. “This is from an excerpt of a forthcoming interview with Consuelo Mack WealthTrack that airs Friday evening at 7:30 p.m. on public television.”

Apple is the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of the stock market. It’s the Dr. Jekyll in the sense that they are one of the greatest product innovators creating products that people love and a brand that people love, and they’re Mr. Hyde in their completely idiotic and dysfunctional capital allocation which is the worst probably in the history of corporate America among good companies. So they have $135 billion of cash… Tim Cook said when they had $90 billion of cash, he said it was way too much. They had not possible reason to use it, announced a modest dividend and a modest share buyback that would not even draw down the cash at all, not one dollar. A year later, 135 billion of cash… I think Apple at $450 a share has huge optionality. It’s nine and a half times earnings. It’s going to grow probably 15 or 16 percent this year consensus, 12 to 14 next. Coke grows six to eight percent and trades at 17 times earnings, so if Apple had a capital allocation like IBM or like McDonald’s… McDonald’s pays out 100 percent of free cash flow to shareholders and trades at 15, 16 times. Apple would be up 50 percent on just sensible capital allocation. — Legg Mason manager Bill Miller

Read more and/or watch the video in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Obviously, as they’re not stupid, Apple has some master plan for all of that cash. Whether it be buying up content creators who refuse to play ball, snapping up Microsoft and putting them out of their wretched misery, building flying cars and developing iTransporters, buying Lithuania, or whatever… eventually we’ll find out what Steve told Tim to save up that mountain of cash for.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “David E.” and “Michael H.” for the heads up.]

Masked gunmen rape six Spanish women at Mexican beach resort in latest attack on tourists in recent days

A masked gang raped six Spanish women in Acapulco, authorities have said.

Five armed attackers broke into a property on a beach resort on Monday, tying up six men before raping the women.

The Guerrero state attorney general, Martha Garz n, said a seventh woman begged the men not to rape her and the assailants told her they would spare her because she was Mexican. “Fortunately, we have strong evidence to lead us to those responsible for this reprehensible act,” Garzon told Radio F rmula.

The mayor of Acapulco, Luis Walton, was later forced to apologise after he said the attack was “regrettable” because it would damage the city’s image, but it “could have happened anywhere”.

The comments triggered outrage in Mexico and Spain, and his office issued a statement on its website saying Walton “very much laments the misinterpretation of his comments, which were never intended to hurt the victims or minimise the facts”.

The popular holiday destination, which attracted film stars and musicians in the 1950s and 60s, has made headlines in recent years owing to a rise in drug gang killings and extortions, but the violence has rarely affected tourists.

Mexico’s foreign relations department said it regretted the attack, adding: “Up to now the investigations are being carried out by local authorities and they will be the ones to provide information.”

In Mexico local authorities determine if organised criminal are behind an attack, and, if so, pass the case to federal authorities.

Security and drug analyst Jorge Chabat said: “Everything points to this being organised crime, because several gangs have operated [in Acapulco] for years … it’s probably not the big cartels but there are smaller groups that carry out crimes on a permanent basis.”

The Spanish embassy in Mexico City said the victims were receiving consular assistance and treatment.

Spain’s foreign ministry had issued a travel advisory on its website for Acapulco before the attack, listing the resort as being located in Mexico’s “risk zone”.

The attack came three days after a pair of Mexican tourists returning from a beach east of Acapulco were shot at and slightly wounded by members of a masked self-defence squad that set up cordons in areas north of the city to defend their communities against gang violence. The vigilantes said the tourists failed to stop at their improvised roadblock.Acapulco was extolled in Frank Sinatra songs and Elvis Presley films. Elizabeth Taylor was married there, John F and Jackie Kennedy spent their honeymoon in a local resort, and Howard Hughes spent his later years in a suite at the Princess hotel.

Last week, Mexico used an international tourism fair in Spain to promote itself as a safe destination.